The Heritage of America's Thanksgiving

And there we go. Okay, so I'm Terry Cameriselle and I'm here on behalf of Creation Fellowship Santee.

We're a group of friends bound by our common agreement that the creation account, as told in Genesis, is a true depiction of how

God created the world and all life in just six days, about 6 ,000 years ago.

We've been meeting in this online platform since May of 2020 and we've been blessed with a wide variety of speakers, some doctors, some authors, pastors, apologists, all sorts of people who love the

Lord and have a message to share. You can find links to most of those past presentations by typing in tinyurl .com

forward slash cfs archives. That's c like creation, f like fellowship, s like Santee, and the word archives.

While you're there, we also have a list of our upcoming speakers, although it's only through 2023 and we just have one more left after tonight, although we are working on booking speakers for 2024.

We will be back in January. But one last thing, you can also email us at creationfellowshipsantee at gmail .com

so that you can get on our email list. We promise not to spam and we'll send you links to all of the upcoming speakers.

So tonight we're very blessed. We have a variety, not just of speakers, but of topics.

We love to study creation science, but sometimes we also study other theology topics and even current events.

For these last two meetings here in 2023, we've decided to do some holiday themed ones.

So pay attention and make plans to attend on December 7th for a Christmas themed one. But this one tonight is going to be more about Thanksgiving.

So we're blessed to have Ryan Cox with us. Ryan Cox is a worldview minister serving with Creation Truth Foundation in Noble, Oklahoma.

He actually has several degrees in history and science and he's a dinosaur expert.

In fact, we had his colleague Matt Miles on earlier in the year to speak about dinosaurs. But tonight we invited him because of his love of history and love of the studying of the foundation of America.

So he's going to talk to us about America's Thanksgiving, the heritage of America's Thanksgiving.

So with that, I'm turning it over to you, Ryan. Well, thank you very much. And I very much appreciate the invitation to come and share with you.

I was a long time history teacher. That was my passion growing up. And so I got my education in history and teacher certification, taught for seven years.

And one of my favorite things that was impressed upon me in secular universities was how questionable historical events are when you actually go through and look at the evidence that is available and how we write our history and our history books.

A lot of it's pretty good and dependable, but sometimes there's some guesswork or new discoveries that enlighten us as to what actually took place in the past.

But as a teacher, we always had to be on a rotation of getting new textbooks, getting revised textbooks with new information.

Well, as a Christian, I kind of smirked at that because I have a history book that I've read since I was a child, taught to me by my parents, that is still on its first edition.

It has never needed to be updated. And that is the history book given to us by our creator

God. And so I believe it is absolute history from the very first chapter to the very end.

These things really did take place or will take place as prophesied by our Lord. And so I appreciate the opportunity to share history.

So I got to teach history for seven years in public education and then went into full -time ministry and I'm now with Creation Truth Foundation.

This foundation was established by Dr. G. Thomas Sharp, who has retired. And that's when

I came on as part of the ministry. You met my colleague, Matt, Matt Miles, who is the president, and he got to share with you about dinosaurs.

So Dr. Sharp traveled the country all over sharing about dinosaurs and the reliability and the true history that is found in even the creation account of the entire book of Genesis.

But there was one thing that also was a passion of his, and that was American history.

And he believed that America, even though it was founded upon biblical principles and a

Judeo -Christian ethic, it too has been, as Doc would say, evolutionized and paganized.

And that's why we've seen some more trying times in America's past history. And so he would speak about that.

Well, when I joined the ministry, Matt said, hey, we need somebody to pick up that part of the ministry as well and share some history.

And so we have developed a program that we call Our American Founding.

And so I'm going to switch over to my other screen now. There we go. And so Our American Founding, and we have however many presentations you would like for us to do when

I come and share on that. And so this one particularly is the pilgrims.

And so somehow I ended up with a P theme. The pilgrims, the patriots, the protected, the president, and the preachers, and the proclamation.

However many of those we get to do. I want to share a little bit of the pilgrims with you this evening as that would be setting us up for our

Thanksgiving time. And so to do that, this is the pilgrims journey actually begins about the exact same time as Jamestown was being settled.

Jamestown, as you know, was settled in 1607. Well, back in England at that very time,

Archbishop Tobias Matthew, he under the charge of the king, had begun raiding homes in Scruby and Nottinghamshire, imprisoning those who would not adhere to the

Church of England. Well, there was a group of separatists, not necessarily Puritans.

Puritans sought to try to purify the Church of England. Separatists decided it's a lost cause.

And so we're just going to separate and worship on our own. And we're going to do it based on how we read and understand the scriptures, not based on somebody dictating it to us.

And so this group led by men such as William Brewster and John Robinson and Richard Clifton had begun worshiping the

Lord according to their own personal understanding of the scriptures and not by the decrees of the king.

They decided that because their homes were being raided and the pamphlets and literature they were producing were being frowned upon and was serving as opportunity for them to be imprisoned, that they should try to leave the country.

That, however, was also illegal unless you had permission. You would gain permission from the government.

Well, in 1607, they attempted to try to do so anyway and go over to Holland. Holland was a province of the

Netherlands, which is there on the northern part of the mainland of Europe, wedged between France and Germany up there.

And so they were going to try to get over there and be able to worship in freedom. But when they attempted that in 1607, the captain of the ship that they had chartered betrayed them and turned them in, and so the men were arrested.

They were treated leniently though, according to what was written in a journal by a young man who had joined the separatists named

William Bradford. Well, they decided the following spring in 1608 to try again and see if we can get to freedom.

And they wanted to take their families, obviously, but they decided that to try to draw less attention to themselves of a big group of people, of entire families, men, women, and children, getting on a boat and trying to go over there, that they would split up.

So, they were going to go 60 miles up the coast, further from where they had first done their attempt, because that's a pretty long distance, especially back then when you didn't have a car or a train to get there.

And so, they thought that'd be a good way to try together. The women and children journeyed down a little river to the coast, and the men would walk overland, so they didn't see these families trying to escape

England. They would then board a Dutch ship that they had chartered once they all arrived and hurried to get on and leave.

Well, the women and children arrived a day earlier than the men. They made pretty good time going down that little river.

Well, they sat there kind of on the coast, and they didn't see anybody was there, and they didn't want to sit out there in the open, plus the waves tossing back and forth was getting them a little seasick.

So, they decided to go back up the river and kind of hide out there for a while as they waited for the men to arrive.

But the tide went out, and in the morning, it hadn't come back, and their boats got stuck in the mud, and they weren't able to get down there.

The men arrived that next morning, seen no one, but they're sure they're going to show up at any time, and the boat is there, and the captain is there waiting for them to get on.

So, a few of them start getting on board the ship and get ready to go. In the midst of that, a great company, is how it's written in the journals, begins to arrive.

They hear them coming to arrest them. Well, the men who are on the boat are kind of stuck on there.

Some of them who are on the dock jump off and run to try to hide, and the Dutch captain weighs anchor, and he takes off with these men who realize they're leaving, and they don't have their families with them.

They don't have their wives and their children with them. So, they tell him, get back, get back, we got to go back, and the captain's like, no,

I ain't getting caught by the authorities, and they kept pleading with him, no, you got to go back, you got to go back. And so, finally, he says, okay, he relented, and he goes to turn around, and right when that happens, a thunderstorm strikes up out of nowhere.

Lightning, thunder, winds like crazy, choppy, choppy, choppy waves that they can't get through.

They try to turn around. They cannot get back. The storm will last for 14 days.

For many of those days, they could see neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars.

They didn't even know where they were at half the time. The captain believed God was punishing him for not returning the men to their families.

However, if this storm had not suddenly risen and struck at just that right moment, and kept those men from returning to their families and being arrested, there may not have been an

America as we know it today. But when the authorities arrived and found only women and children, and some of the men who had ran off, because the women and children didn't show up and finally get there, they felt a little awkward trying to arrest children and women.

So, they kind of detained them for a while, asked them questions, and said, okay, well, you can go on home, but don't do this again.

Well, the husbands and fathers who had made it, they did finally arrive in Holland, were able to acquire some land and purchase some homes, and they sent for their families, and they all then eventually finally made it to Amsterdam there in the

Netherlands. Well, they decide after a little bit to move to the town of Leiden, and from there

William Brewster, along with Thomas Brewer and Edward Winslow and others, began working a printing press they acquired, and they began sending a lot of literature, lots of publications back to England that were pretty critical of the king and his church and the religion, and were calling on people to shun that and instead return simply back to the

Bible, the pure plain teachings of God's word, just use that. Well, it got so irritating that King James eventually sent out an international manhunt for these men.

In addition, after being there for what would end up being about 12 years of residency, the separatist children had kind of really started learning the

Dutch customs and language, and for them they felt like they were losing some of their

English heritage, because they still were proud of their English history and their heritage, and they thought the

Dutch were a little more secular maybe than they decided, and so they figured they needed to pursue a new means to freedom.

They went about it the new way that this was all happening in the 17th century, in the 1600s, and they acquired a land patent from the

Virginia Company, and financing from, this is one of my favorite parts, the company that would finance it and seek a profit from this new colony if they got the permission to go to the new world, to the

American colonies, that company was called the Merchant Adventurers. I'm sure they had great commercials to get everybody to join.

Anyway, so they're going to seek a profit for this. Well, Deacons John Carver and Robert Cushman, they went and handled the negotiations, because they could kind of get in and be with a little more subtlety than William Brewster, who was kind of well known and was in hiding, because the king had sent people all the way over to the

Netherlands to try to find these guys, and the company, to make sure things ran smoothly, they were going to send their people as well.

Men like Miles Standish, who would be the military, and Christopher Martin, who would be the governor of the colony, and so they all get ready.

They charter a boat that they're going to take and travel across the ocean to the new world, and you probably all know the name of that boat.

It was the, yes, the Speedwell. Very good. Everybody who said

Speedwell got it correct. Mayflower. No, no, the Speedwell.

The Speedwell was actually purchased by the efforts of the pilgrims.

Many of them sold their homes and their lands to get on the Speedwell. On their way over to England, where they're going to meet up with another boat that's been chartered, not purchased, but chartered by separatists that had been recruited and were going to leave their homes as well.

Well, on their way over there, the Speedwell developed a bunch of leaks. Some claimed it was just an oversized ship, that the mast wasn't right.

Some said it just wasn't built right. Either way, the boat's not going to make it.

This is not good. So they get to England, and they're like, what do we do? We can't go on this boat, but we've sold our homes and our land.

We don't know how we're going to get there. So they, oh, what do we do? Well, the people who had chartered this other boat said, you take it.

We can stay here at home, and we'll catch the next ship and go over. So that's what they decide to do.

And so they're going to go over, and they get on this boat called the Mayflower.

And that's how they got on that boat. So the Puritans from Holland, I'm sorry, the separatists from Holland, they're going to go on that, and the other people are going to stay there.

And so they cram a total of 102 passengers with about 30 or so crew that run the ship.

And they're going to depart, and this is kind of funny, Plymouth, England on September 6th, 1620.

And they're heading for the Hudson River Bay in what is today New York. As you can see, it was just a little bit cramped.

All they had was just this deck right here where they would be on with no restroom facilities, no laundry mats, no really much of anything, no nice, really good kitchen or stuff.

And so they're going to wear the same set of clothes the entire way there.

If people get sick and whatever, you're going to be right beside them the whole way, swaying back and forth on the boat, not a pleasant trip at all.

You had on the boat 49 from the Leiden congregation who had sold their homes and were coming this way.

You had 13 apprentices or servants who were with them, plus 31 individuals or family members who had been recruited by the merchant adventurers who were not part of the congregation.

So in their journals, in their letters, they refer to them as the strangers because they were strangers to their faith.

And then there were about six apprentices or servants. Edward Winslow recorded that two dogs also made the trip, an

English Mastiff and an English Springer Spaniel. And so they all get on there. Now you can see on the screen there on the boat how cramped it is.

Well, William Brewster insisted that they bring along with them the printing press because he wants to send more literature in freedom back to England to try to win over the people to follow the scriptures.

Problem was it was broke. And the question is, where are you going to get parts in the new world? Well, I guess you have to have them shipped over.

And so they're like, just wait for another time to bring the printing press. We don't need the printing press this time.

It's broke. You won't be able to do anything anyway. Wait till come over with the parts you need to fix it, whatever. He insisted it was put on the boat somewhere.

They crammed it on there and they brought the printing press along, even though it wasn't working at the time. Now, as I said, the trip, absolutely challenging.

Just horrid conditions. I cannot imagine. It seemed to storm the whole trip. You were stuck below for two months with bad food, tainted water, no bathrooms.

The one said it closed. And just over halfway, the ship gets damaged.

William Bradford wrote after they had enjoyed fair winds and weather for a season, they were encountered many times with crosswinds and met with many fierce storms with which the ship was shrouded, least shaken.

And her upper works made very leaky. And one of the main beams in the mid ships was bowed and cracked, which put them in some fear that the ship could not be able to perform the voyage.

So some of the chief of the company perceiving the mariners to fear the sufficiency of the ship as appeared by their mutterings, they entered into serious consultation with the master and other officers of the ship to consider in time of the danger and rather to return than to cast themselves into a desperate and inevitable peril.

But an examining of all opinions, the master and others affirmed they knew the ship to be strong and firm underwater.

And for the buckling of the main beam, there happened to be on the ship, there was a great iron screw the passengers brought out of Holland, which would raise the beam into his place.

Hmm, what big giant iron screw was on the boat that wasn't being used at that time, but somebody had insisted they bring along with them the giant iron screw of the printing press.

If they hadn't had that, they may have decided to turn around and not make the journey.

Well, as Bradford writes there, so they had the giant iron screw to raise the beam into his place, the which being done, the carpenter and master affirmed that with a post put under it, set firm in the lower deck and other ways bound, he would make it sufficient.

So they committed themselves to the will of God and resolved to proceed.

And that's how the ship was able to continue on. Now Bradford goes on to note, he said, in sundry of these storms, the winds were so fierce and the sea so high as they could not bear a note of sail.

And in one of them, as they thus lay at whole in a mighty storm, a lusty young man called

John Howland coming upon some occasion above the gratings was with a seal of the ship thrown into sea.

But it pleased God that he could hold of the top sail halyards, which hung overboard these big long ropes and rain out at length.

Yet he held his hold though he was sundry fathoms, I'm trying to read 17th century

English here, underwater till he was hauled up by the same rope to the brime of the water.

And then with a boat hook and other means got into the ship again and his life saved.

Just kind of showing you how treacherous this journey could be at times. And though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth.

In all this voyage there died but one of the passengers, which was William Button, a youth servant to Samuel Fuller, when they drew near the coast.

He got sick. They got close there to their original landing spot, which they wouldn't end up being there.

They'd go on closer and he died just a day or two, I think it was before they landed at Plymouth. But to admit other things that I may be brief, after long beating at sea, they fell with that land, which is called

Cape Cod. Land was sighted on November 9th, two months after they had set sail.

They all ran up on deck and began to praise God for bringing them to the new world. They celebrated so long that Captain Jones had to force them below decks so he could continue operations of the ship.

He's like, stop all your singing and praying. Go down. I can't run the ship. They had arrived at Cape Cod, which was north of where they were to settle.

They attempted for several days to try to get to where they were supposed to. They'd set sails to go south, but a strong winter storm would show up and so they'd have to wait for it to die down.

They tried to go down south again. The winds kept them from making any progress. And so they decided, well, we can't go south for some reason.

Somebody's keeping us from doing that. And they floated into Provincetown Harbor of Cape Cod on Saturday, November 11th, 1620.

Now, this land was out of their patents jurisdiction. The Pilgrims see this as an opportunity to draft a new charter, a contract, a government -based, a governing -based contract between them and the strangers, those who were the merchant adventurers, of how they would live in peace.

And since they wrote this compact on the Mayflower, they called it the

Mayflower Compact. And this is the famous painting that you've often seen of it. So it provided a social contract between them, between the

Pilgrims and the tradesmen, the adventurers. So they would all have an agreed -upon terms of how to live peaceably together in this area that was outside of the original patent.

And in case you've never read it or seen what it said, this is what it said. In the name of God, amen, we whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign

Lord King James, by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, et cetera, having undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the

Christian faith and honor of our King and country a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presence solemnly mutually in the presence of God and one another covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends of force said, and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience and witness whereof we have here under subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign

Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the 18th, and of Scotland, the 54th, and O'Domini 1620. Now you have read the

Mayflower Compact, in case you never have before. Now what's really important though, we got to make sure we understand.

What did they say was the reason for this trip, for coming here to the new world?

The reason I ask that is because my wife, when she was a young lady, her family took a trip to to the

New England states and went to Boston and went over to where they have the Plymouth Harbor there at Cape Cod and went on a recreation of the

Mayflower. They called it Mayflower II. They've taken the tour, and I've taken the tour as well, but I don't remember this part.

Their tour guide specifically said, now most people think the pilgrims came here to find religious liberty, but that's not really the reason.

The reason they came over here was to start a new colony, to make a profit for the merchant adventurers. There was no reason of religious freedom for them coming over here.

I recall though, in their very own words, right here, we have undertaken for the glory of God and advancement of the

Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia.

They say in their own words, the whole reason for taking this trip is to be able to worship the

Lord in freedom. And as you've seen already in the history that we've covered, that is entirely the reason why they took this trip.

Just a sad state of the secular education we have sometimes in our country today.

Well, as I said, they arrived there on a Saturday. Well, they're all excited and ready to disembark, but the next day is

Sunday. It's the Lord's day. They believed that was a day not to do any great tasks, great work.

And so they stayed on board the ship to worship, to have their regular observance of the

Lord's day and did not unload until the following day on Monday, November 13th, 1620.

Now I think about that and I'm thinking if I'd been stuck on that boat for two months, I would be desperate to get off at the very soonest possible opportunity, but they believed observing the

Lord's day was more important. So finally on Monday, November 13th, 1620, the pilgrims set foot in the new world.

They explored the land and eventually on December 16th, went out to Plymouth Harbor, where they settled on a location on December 21st.

However, weather kept them from starting home construction until December 23rd.

Now, December 23rd in what would eventually become Massachusetts, that's a great time to start building a house.

The area, not very conducive with the winter that was coming on, but so guess where they had to stay most of the time.

They still had to stay most of the time on the ship until they could finally get every building they got, then they can move a few more out there and everything.

The area had been called, it's kind of interesting, it had been identified on maps as New Plymouth by this guy who was really good at making maps named

John Smith. You may have heard of him. And so he made that map back in 1614. And when he did that, he had brought home a native named

Squanto who had been living in England for nine years. Well, the colonists decided we'll keep the name

Plymouth. And since we just left Plymouth, England, and this is already called Plymouth, we'll call this Plymouth Colony. Now, as I said, this winter was harsh with freezing temperatures, disease, not much shelter, and of the 130 or so original passengers, only 53 would survive to the following November.

Of the 18 wives that had come on the trip, 13 died by the end of the following March, including

William Bradford's own wife, Isaac Allerton.

He lost his wife, and now he had his seven, five, and three -year -old to care for.

13 -year -old Mary Chilton had both her parents die, as did 13 -year -old

Elizabeth Tilley. How would you like to be a 13 -year -old stranded with a group of people you've gone to church with, but no family clear on the other side of the world in the midst of a winter that you don't know if you're going to survive or not?

12 -year -old Samuel Fuller lost both of his parents. Susanna White was pregnant and gave birth to a son on the

Mayflower in November while they were anchored in Cape Cod. Her husband would die that winter, leaving her with her infant and five -year -old sons to take care of.

She'd be the only surviving widow, and she is pictured, I'll show you in the famous painting by Ginny Brownscombe from 1914, in the famous painting of the first Thanksgiving.

Despite the almost indescribable, unable to fathom difficulties, they refused to give up.

They did not get back on the Mayflower when it left to go back to England on April 5th.

They knew God had called them to be there and that God was not going to give up on them and that this colony could survive if they would just have faith to follow him through this.

Well, on March 16th, after this winter's coming to an end, there in 1621, a man named

Samuelset walked into the village. He had learned English when he was captured and then eventually released by English fishermen in present -day

Maine, but he had this friend named Squanto, who was just mentioned, who had been captured in 1605 and returned home for good in 1619.

Squanto's life is an amazing story. I highly recommend you look it up sometime. He would make the trip across the

Atlantic six times in his life and had kind of a few miraculous events happen to make sure he got home.

When he heard that there was this new group living here, what was called

Plymouth Colony, he went with Samuelset and Chief Massasoit to visit the colony.

While he was gone back in England when he had been captured and eventually got back, there had been a terrible plague, a disease that had come in and wiped out his entire tribe.

So when he got back, he was very depressed because everybody he had known was dead, all of his family, all of his tribe, and so he wandered about from tribe to tribe and finally was welcomed into Chief Massasoit's tribe and was living with them.

Well, he finds out there's a new group living there and he could have been bitter about it, he could have been upset because they were

English white men, but when he found out that they weren't offering trade for anything, he thought they were just coming to make a profit, you know, to try to do some fur trade because that's all he'd seen people do.

When he found out that's not what they were doing, they were just simply interested in how to grow crops, how to survive, and offered whatever they had as an exchange of just friendship, he thought, well, these people are acting a little differently.

So he asked to go with them and he did and he was just blown away by these people and how they behaved, how they treated each other, their brotherly love for one another.

They were selfless, hard -working, wanting to take care and help other people, and he became infatuated.

He was just excited about this kind of people living in the territory, in the land that had once been inhabited by his tribe and his ancestors.

He attended their worship services, he listened to them read the Bible and pray, and the colonists become very fond of him as well.

In fact, when he's captured by a rival tribe, Miles Standish, whose wife had also died that winter, he will lead a group to go rescue him, which eventually, after they do that and Squanto kind of negotiates with them and everything, it would lead to 50 years of peace between the colonists and the surrounding native tribes.

After they rescue him and bring him back, Bradford will show him the story of a young man who also had been put into captivity and it seemed very discouraging, but eventually

God worked it all out for the good of Joseph when he was sold into slavery into Egypt by his brothers, and how

God brought about good and great things through that, and God could too also bring about great things through Squanto, and Squanto and Bradford became close friends, and Squanto too became a

Christian. How amazing is it, what are the odds of all these coincidences, a word that never shows up in the

Bible, that these people who are desperate to find freedom to work, to just simply worship

God, to live by the Bible, desperate situation at times, would happen to land on the one spot in all of North America where the natives not only were living there but wanted nothing to do with the land and said, absolutely, you can take that land for all you want because it's thirsty, they had it wiped out a tribe, and there just happened to be somebody there who knew that land, like the back of his hand, who spoke fluent

English. Man, that's a lot of coincidences, isn't it, isn't it?

No, no, somebody was helping them bring about this opportunity, and so the colonists established very good relations with the natives through the love of Christ, they worked to actually try to evangelize, in return the natives worked side by side with them, giving them all the pointers of how to provide for themselves and learn how to live in the land there, and if I had time

I would take you through what happened in Jamestown, exact opposite down there. Those men were selfish, they did not live by a religious creed a lot of the time, they very much mistreated the

Native Americans, and in return had very bad relations from time to time. John Smith was one of the exceptions, as was

John Rolfe, whereas up here in New England, they were selfless, living by God's word, they just weren't

Christian in name only, they were Christian in practice, following Christ, being disciples of him and living for him, and things turned out very well, and so at the harvest of 1621, they got together, most likely in October, 90 warrior

Indian braves and 53 colonists for a three -day celebration.

Now that could be a 90 warrior men outnumbering your able -bodied men in the colony three to one, but those guys knew how to cook, they brought a lot of venison, enough for them to feast together for three days, and that right there is usually where you will see the end of the

Thanksgiving story in most of your published materials out there, because it's then usually said they had a day of Thanksgiving to give thanks to the

Indians, the Native Americans, for saving them, showing them all the pointers. Well, that's not quite the end of the story.

Pardon me there, let me take a drink. That's just part of the story of what happened there.

You see, ships from the merchant adventurers eventually came along and arrived, and one was named the

Fortune, and it showed up in November of 1621, so they had that celebration there in October, and then a ship shows up in 1621.

Yes, can you hear me? I think you cut out for a moment. Am I here? Now I can hear you, yes.

Okay, great. Okay, so problems arrived when a ship called the Fortune came in November of 1621, so they had the three -day celebration in October, and then that November a new vessel arrived.

It had 37 settlers on it, many of them the separatists who had stayed in England, and some who actually were still in Leiden and just couldn't afford to make the first trip.

William Brewster's son, Jonathan, is amongst them, so a little bit of family reunion happening.

Well, the merchant adventurers found out from when the Mayflower had come back that they weren't in the spot they were supposed to be, so they sent new letters, new contracts, new rules to say this is how the colony is supposed to operate to help increase the output of goods to England.

Well, the contract of the colony said that no individual for now can own a plot of land for the first seven years.

In fact, the plots of land are going to be rotated every year amongst the different families, so you will have a plot of land for this year that you're going to plant and work and till and harvest, hopefully, and then the next year you're going to move to a new plot of land that'll be yours to till and work and harvest, but what happens if you move to a plot that nobody took good care of, messed it all up, whatever, because they knew it didn't matter, they're not going to keep that land anyway.

Well, what happens as that incentive goes around? Additionally, everything that is harvested each year gets put into a central storehouse in the rest of the colony from which everything will be distributed evenly amongst everyone, whether you worked hard and produced or didn't work hard and produced.

Well, that could lead to some people not being very motivated to put much effort into the colony.

From the very beginning, socialism, or as William Bradford referred to it, communalism, was trying to infiltrate

America. It was soon realized that they will not be able to harvest enough to make it through the following year, to last through the winter.

Well, Governor Bradford believed, as did many of the separatists, the pilgrims, believed that the answer was, guess what, right here in this book.

John Smith, 15 years earlier in Jamestown, had said that we are going to operate by 2

Thessalonians 3 .10, that if you don't work, you don't eat. And 1

Timothy 5 .8, which is also believed by the pilgrims to be very applicable, if you don't provide for your own family, you've denied the faith and you're worse than an infidel.

So, they believe we're going to make it the practice that if you don't work, you don't put forth the effort, you don't get any of the benefits.

We're not going to give you, we're not going to divide evenly out amongst you. Because to do otherwise would be a violation of God's word.

God says you don't distribute the food evenly to those who didn't put forth any effort. If they're able to.

If they're not able to, if they're incapacitated or just not capable, then obviously you do, you help those, you take care of those.

That's what James says is good religion, you take care of like widows and orphans and those who can't. But for those who can work and they don't, you don't let them have any food.

Governor Bradford, this is what he recorded as what was happening. He said, and after they began to come into once, many sold away their clothes and bed coverings to the natives.

Others so baser they became servants to the Indians and would cut them wood and fetch them water for a cap full of corn.

Others fell to plain stealing, both night and day from the Indians of which they grievously complained.

In the end, they came to that misery that some starved and died with cold and hunger.

One in gathering shellfish was so weak as he stuck fast in the mud and was found dead in the place.

His feet sunk down into the mud and he just sat there and he basically froze to death.

And they found him, he was just slumped over. They were still standing as he was trying to fish. All this,

Bradford says, while no supply was heard of, neither knew they when they might expect any. So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery.

At length, after much debate of things, the governor with the advice of the chiefest amongst them gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular.

And in that regard, trust to themselves and all other things to go on in the general way as before.

And so assigned to every family, a parcel of land, according to the proportion of their number for that end, only for the present use, but made no division for inheritance and ranged all boys and youth under some family.

So here's what they're going to do. Everybody's going to get a plot of land based on the size of your family, but we're not going to do the rotating thing.

Now it's not yours to own because the rule says not for seven years, but we're not going to do the rotating. It's yours to work and to harvest.

And for those young men who don't have a family to get their own plot of land, we will assign them to anybody who's willing to welcome them in.

We're going to get everybody taken care of, but they too have to work. They got to put forth some effort. Now, as you're going to see in a minute there, that a lot of these boys spent their time just running around, horsing around, playing, chasing girls, goofing off, that kind of stuff.

And they decided, Hey, if you're going to do that, you're not getting any food to eat. Well, these guys are a bunch of, of sob,

Jesus loving people. They'll give us something to eat when we're really hungry. After a few days of not getting anything to eat, they decided to start working and pitching in.

So guess how this turned out? Well, let's see what Bradford wrote.

He said this had very good success for it made all hands very industrious.

So as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the governor or any other could use and saved him a great deal of trouble and gave far better content.

The women now went willingly into the field and took their little ones with them to set corn, which before would allege weakness and inability whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.

They would go out willingly now and work the fields intended. Well, where's the man to do that? Where were the men?

Well, corn is not the only thing that's going to get you through. You also need some protein. So the men, most of the time we're out hunting.

Now you may think they got off easy there, but Hey, if you didn't catch something, then you got nothing to feed your family.

So they were out doing that. The women now who beforehand are like, well, Hey, if I can't get the harvest off of this,

I work all this, right? Work really hard to plant and weed and till and harvest.

And then they're just going to put in the store and destroyed evening amongst everybody. Why should I put forth the effort now? Because they get to keep what they, what they put the effort into, what, what they harvest to feed their own family.

They put forward a lot more effort. And for those who may not have turned out as well, guess what you could work for or buy from those who had surplus.

If you had surplus, you could sell or get exchange of goods or services in exchange for that.

And Bradford says this worked out great. We had a great harvest because of this.

So Bradford makes a very interesting note about this. He said the experience that was had in this common course and condition, this communal idea tried sundry years.

This wasn't a new idea. And that amongst godly and sober men may well events the vanity of the conceit of Plato's Greek philosophers and other ancients applauded by some of latter times that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing as if they were wiser than God.

Notice what Bradford said based on his understanding of this was the exact opposite of God's wisdom.

He said this whole communal thing, this socialism thing is exactly is directly in contrast to the wisdom of God.

For this community so far as it was was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort for the young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense.

The strong or man of parts had no more in division of victuals and clothes victuals or food provisions than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could.

This was thought injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and equalized in labors and victuals clothes etc with demeanor and younger sort thought it some indignity and disrespect unto them.

The old men were going to have to do all the work while the young men were off goofing around. And for men's wives to be commanded to do services for other men as dressing their meat, washing their clothes etc they deemed it the kind of slavery neither could many husbands well brook it upon the point all being to have alike and all to do alike they thought themselves in the like condition and one as good as another.

So it was disastrous this whole socialism thing this communalism thing. And Bradford concludes and so if it did not cut of those relations that God hath set amongst men yet it did at least much diminish and take of the mutual respect that should be preserved amongst them and would have been worse if they had been men of another condition just think if they weren't

Christians how bad this would have turned out. Let none object this is men's corruption and nothing to the course itself

I answer seeing all men have this corruption in them God in his wisdom saw another course fitter for them from these extremities the

Lord in his goodness kept these his people and in their great wants preserved both their lives and healths let his name have the praise.

From then on the colony flourished establishing new settlements they became a starting point a training center for new colonies all while remaining steadfast upon the word of God it was then in 1623 that everything was looking great everything's going wonderful when from the third week of May to the middle of July no rain corn began to wither the colony came together to figure out what can we do well in that kind of condition there's really only one thing you can do and that's pray so they decided they were going to have a whole day of fasting and prayer

Bradford who I feel like if he had one he would have brought an umbrella with him he noted that when they did so there wasn't a cloud in the sky not a sign at all that there was going to be any rain but that night that very night after their full day of prayer and fasting

Bradford writes it began to overcast and shortly after to rain with such sweet and gentle showers as gave them cause of rejoicing and blessing

God it came without either wind or thunder or any violence and because if it did what would happen it would destroy everything or wash it away or blow it over and by degrees and that abundance as that the earth was thoroughly wet and soaked therewith which did so apparently revive and quicken the decayed corn and other fruits as was wonderful to see and made the

Indians astonished to behold blew their mind what they saw happen before their very own eyes and afterwards the

Lord sent them such seasonable showers with interchange of fair warm weather as through his blessing caused a fruitful and liberal harvest to their no small comfort and rejoicing for which mercy in time convenient they also set apart a day of thanksgiving and that's how this nation was founded upon God's word full faith and dependence on him giving him all the praise and honor including a special day of thanksgiving unto

God even Susanna White with her infant and five -year -old you can see them pictured here in the 1914 painting by Jeannie Brownscombe Jeannie Brownscombe the first thanksgiving right here this is supposed to be her with her five -year -old and infant giving praise if it had not been in my estimation divinely sent storms back in England and then in America at just the right times these things may never have happened and we would not have the tremendous bounty of the richest freest nation to ever exist for which we could enjoy to such wonderful blessings as we even get to to this very day including this time of year so it's it's my contention that um

I when I go and I teach this I don't teach that God needed the United States and he'd establish this country so we'd become this great launching point of missionaries and Christian evangelism all around the world my my contention reading this is the people who came here they came here and lived their lives based on this and in return

God blessed and blessed in amazing ways and we were able to become such an amazing country and get to send out uh the incredible missionaries and the incredible mission support all around the world because of those people who came here and established this country upon God's work um as we were talking earlier there about the constitution before you all came on uh many of the foundational principles of the constitution the constitution has much of its framework and and laws and rules based right out of the scriptures if we want to see revival in the land it's not a matter of getting the right people elected it's a matter of upon what is your foundation our ministry is called creation truth foundation because we believe that the foundation to faith and all the doctrines of the bible can be found in genesis and creation and that if God is not your creator then he can't be your savior either well that should be the foundation of our homes it was and you can kind of still say it was the foundation of this country so when the secular world comes out and attacks america's history and attack its foundation and say it should be discredited and removed it the the founders the founding fathers and the declaration and and all that shouldn't have any influence on us today well then who else are they they saying should be discredited and have no influence on our civilization today as well the church because we have the same foundation so my question is what is your foundation if you want to see revival in the land it's not about it cannot start it cannot start in the white house or the courthouse or the state house i would even contend it can't can't even hardly start in the church house until it starts in your house and we see christian parents saying no more are we going to let the world dictate to us what we're going to do we're going to follow this first we're not going to let and i hope i am stepping on some toes we're not going to let a soccer practice or a baseball game or anything trump the lord's day we are not going forsake the assembling of the saints we're not going to give up our following of this book our family is going to be founded on this if we do that then we have the mentality and we have the dedication that the people who came and started this country had and we saw god bless them what might he be able to do for your family and your church and your community if the people you know and you personally will do that as well and so that's my message of thanksgiving and i thank you very much for the opportunity to get to share it with you this evening oh that was really awesome i really enjoyed that thank you um i went to school in the um all through the 70s and i graduated high school in 1983 and i do remember uh like in the early grade schools we did put on the pilgrim hats and yeah people you know brought the you know food and we had like a thanksgiving dinner and my children went to school in the 90s um my son graduated in 2003 and my daughter in 2005 and i don't remember doing that with them at all um and and they kind of they went to a private school it was a charter school um they talked about it but they didn't get dressed up or anything like that which was really kind of sad and they thought it was weird that we did that i did it in the 80s so yeah i i hear you i remember doing those exact same things yes i really considered making a pilgrim hat for tonight but i decided not when i go and i do these programs i do wear costume a time period or event specific costume with each one of the presentations and so i have a costume outfit i thought about wearing it this evening but i thought maybe not plus i just came from a convention center where we have a booth at today so anyway so well that would have been cool to see you in costume but i was i don't know if i wasn't following along so when the women got stuck in that sandbar yes um but the men showed up and didn't find the women the men went back what some of them started the board they figured they would they would show up soon and so some of them with the what they brought their provisions um whatever they had that they could carry some decided to go ahead and start getting on the boat start loading some things up they're kind of getting things ready when all of a sudden as they called a great company uh some government officials showed up they had were patrolling or had found out i'm not exactly sure how and they decided this is not good and so who hadn't gotten on scattered and and ran and eventually found the women and children who were finally making their way there and the other men are taking off and they're screaming like no no go back go back where our families are there we can't leave our families and and then that's how that that all kind of went down so thank you yeah i was just uh they were detained and questioned and decided that since you know they did it just things were kind of awkward and weird and so they they they eventually did let everybody go and throwing them in prison see where people in england would have a better attitude toward the church because it's definitely a state -run institution mm -hmm and i understand i think only seven percent of europe goes to church yes it's um yeah it's very sad most of the buildings are vacant now they are being turned into coffee houses or something else yeah yeah i've seen that too yes and so i actually uh last october a year ago got to spend uh three weeks um doing a little missionary tour and and came across a young man and his wife and i think two children who are doing mission work in france and uh there's definitely certain rules laws they have to follow there but um they had people over for thanksgiving and uh and making christmas cookies and things like that and they had never experienced anything like that of course they wouldn't have the same kind of thanksgiving tradition as us but to be welcomed into somebody's home for a meal and to make cookies those are all strange things to them oh wow yes and they said just being communal like that being community focused uh trying to bring people into the home and so that's where they have their their sunday church services are in the home obviously because they can't get a church building they couldn't even begin because you have to go through the government and all that kind of stuff to get your registration as a religious organ blah blah blah so um they it's they're just reaching out one family at a time and trying to make that impact because of how lost uh europe has become just absolutely sad and america could very well go that same route oh i see it happening um terry anybody else other than me have questions well no i mean i i kind of i mean so they didn't eat just um toast and popcorn and jelly beans right that that's right and and and fruit charlie brown they didn't have fluff with marshmallows no that's right yes our meal is a little different than what they had i don't even know if they had any turkey on their thanksgiving so but uh yep i'm a little bit curious i mean we hear the phrase revisionist history and yes and i and i one of the things i didn't always listen to rush limbaugh my mom loved rush limbaugh but i know that every year for thanksgiving he would read the original christmas or thanksgiving story and i appreciated that but but when when do you think that revisionist history started and and how how bad is it like okay so here's what's interesting about that um i can see a lot of attempts at revisionist history going back even into uh 1930s uh i've seen some evidence where guys were starting to do that then but um not much but then in academia mostly in university levels especially in the 70s it really started taking off it probably was going on in the 60s as well but so i grew up hearing those people who were trying to discredit our founding saying they were all a bunch of deists they didn't really believe the bible they didn't really live by the bible they weren't christian that's why this is not a christian nation well that is absolutely ridiculous um and incredible work by lots of historians both secular and uh bible believing have absolutely discredit because we have their own writings like like with the the pilgrims there um one of the books we carry in our bookstore is the american story it covers from columbus to the constitution by david and tim barton you can get it at creationtruth .com

just my favorite history book uh that everywhere i go we make sure to have that resource for everybody written really neat too really short chapters and good sections everything but anyway um obviously we can refute that no problem so here's what i've seen in my graduate work what's interesting is they've come full circle now and saying oh yes they absolutely the founders were christians they were orthodox they were devout christians uh you could probably count on one hand the influential um revolutionary era founding fathers who were actually deists okay uh it's very very few the vast majority were devout orthodox practicing christians so what they say now is that's why we can't have our founding anymore that's why the constitution is so bad because those bible believing bible christian practicing orthodox christians were slave owners they were white supremacists they oppressed women that's why we can't listen to them that's why we need to get rid of that tear down those statues that's why the church today we can't listen to it anymore because they're the same thing they live by the same book so you see how they brought the argument full circle now and that's what's happening in academia now that's how they're going about it what a pity um another but you know we've had another speaker on a few years ago pastor i don't know if you've heard of um robert j morgan and he wrote about 100 bible verses that made america oh yes yeah that's a really that's a really i don't have it within reach i've used that one in teaching also but it's 100 short chapters of stories about how the bible influenced america and and not just during the founding but but you know it goes all the way through through trump's presidency so sure yeah yeah that's a great resource so um i think you know you've covered this topic so well and you know i robin and i had a couple of questions but it seems like that might be all and that's fine because we're almost against the time anyway so um why don't you go ahead and share again how people can find you and your ministry and i'll remind everybody that matt miles came earlier this year and spoke for us about dinosaurs so people can find that talk too but go ahead and tell people how they can find you and support you and see what you guys are working on creation truth .com

is our website that's the best way to find out about us you can see pictures of all of our dinosaur fossils as well and contact us about maybe bringing them to your church or bringing our american history program our american founding we're happy to do that and we travel all across the country coast to coast border to border with them we're also on social media on x called twitter or used to be twitter on facebook on instagram but our website creation truth .com

best way to get a hold of us and when you go to churches for the american history lessons you do wear costumes i do i do the whole dress up thing i i bring a lot of displays and some artifacts and things to show as well and so that is what we do do you guys dress up like dinosaurs too we don't do that actually no we think the dinosaurs look good enough on their own so oh i was um at the beginning of the program where diane was talking about um david reeves wonder center and i was there for the opening and they had a guy dressed up as a dinosaur it was a lot of fun yeah you should consider that yeah well we have an old costume that we used to wear at conventions or somebody did but i've i've never worn it and nobody wants to wear it today so well dinosaurs and um and american history and all sorts of other topics you guys can find um all of our past presentations once again by typing in tinyurl .com